SmartNews users can now earn points for reading news articles, redeemable for gift cards or charitable donations

PALO ALTO, CA (March 25, 2026) – SmartNews, a global leader in news discovery, today announced the launch of the first-of-its-kind rewards program for in-app news reading in the United States*. The SmartNews Rewards allows users of the SmartNews app to earn valuable points for reading news articles, reclaiming the joy of staying informed.

Consumer interest in everyday loyalty programs is rapidly growing in the U.S. and SmartNews is the first news app where American points enthusiasts can be rewarded for their daily news routine.

“SmartNews has created another new category in the U.S. news industry with the launch of the SmartNews Rewards,” said Sho Masuda, Vice President of US Media Business. “We have always been at the forefront of innovation in news consumption and the SmartNews Rewards is part of our continuous approach to bringing compelling new features to the SmartNews app.”

The versatile SmartNews Rewards is free to join and users are automatically opted-in to all available challenges, allowing them to earn points by reading a certain number of articles within a specified time period. Once collected, those points can be redeemed for a wide variety of options through the Tango Rewards platform, ranging from gift cards at Amazon, to donations at charities like the Special Olympics. 

“The SmartNews Rewards is a powerful new tool for engaging with and thanking our loyal users for doing what they already love to do: spending time staying informed by reading articles on the SmartNews app,” said Masuda.

Based on the company’s successful news-reading rewards program already rolled out in Japan, SmartNews brought those learnings to America in December 2025 to beta test. That test of the SmartNews Rewards in the U.S. showed rapid adoption and enthusiastic usage of the feature, prompting SmartNews to open the program up more widely.

*Based on SmartNews internal research of U.S. news apps as of March 2026.